1. Field of the Invention
For the purpose of explaining the development of one-dimensional nanostructure electronics, the following citations will be referenced:
The present invention relates to an electrochemically-gated field-effect transistor (FET), to methods for its manufacture, to its use, and to electronics comprising said field-effect transistor.
2. Description of the Prior Art    [1] Kim et al., “Fabrication of reliable semiconductor nanowires by controlling crystalline structure,” Nanotechnology 22 (2011), 305704, 6 pages.    [2] Taekyung Lim, et al., “A nanowire-based shift register for display scan drivers,” Nanotechnology 22 (2011), 405203, 7 pages.    [3] Park et al., “Effect of gate dielectrics on the device performance of SnO2 nanowire field effect transistors,” Applied Physics Letters, 96, 102908 (2010), 4 pages.    [4] Ju et al., “High performance ZnO nanowire field effect transistors with organic gate nanodielectrics: effects of metal contacts and ozone treatment,” Nanotechnology 18 (2007) 155201, 7 pages.    [5] Zhang et al., “High-performance, fully transparent, and flexible zinc-doped indium oxide nanowire transistors,” Applied Physics Letters, 94, 123103 (2009) 4 pages.    [6] Ju et al., “Low Operating Voltage Single ZnO Nanowire Field-Effect Transistors Enables by Self-Assembled Organic Gate Nanodielectrics,” Nano Letters, Vo. 5, No. 11 (2005) pages 2281-2286.    [7] Ju et al., “High performance ZnO nanowire field effect transistors with organic gate nanodielectrics: effects of metal contacts and ozone treatment,” Nanotechnology 18 (2007) 155201, 7 pages.
[8] Kalblein et al., “Top-Gate ZnO Nanowire Transistors and Integrated Circuits with Ultrathin Self-Assembled Monolayer Gate Dielectric,” Nano Letters, (2011) 11, pages 5309-5315.    [9] Liu et al., “Ultralow-Voltage Electric Double-Layer SnO2 Nanowire Transistors Gated by Microporous SnO2-Based Solid Electrolyte,” J. Phys. Chem. C, 2010, 114, pages 12316-12319.    [10] Sun et al., “Low-voltage transparent SnP2 nanowire transistors gated by microporous SiO2 solid-electrolyte with improved polarization response,” J. Mater. Chem., 2010, 20, pages 8010-8015.    [11] Liu et al., “Transparent SnO2 Nanowire Electric-Double-Layer Transistors With Different Antimony Doping Levels”, IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 32, No. 10, October 2011, pages 1358-1360.    [12] Liu et al., “Ultralow-Voltage Transparent In2O3 Nanowire Electric-Double-Layer Transistors,” IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 32, No. 3, March 2011, pages 315-317.
The development of one-dimensional nanostructure electronics over the last two decades has been propelled by its various applications in flexible and transparent electronic devices, including but not limited to large area displays, transparent and ‘invisible’ electronics, smart windows, optical and UV sensors, solar cells etc.
Single nanowire or nanowire network transistors, devices and electronics have been described for a number of applications. Generally, a combination of a Si/SiO2 gate/gate oxide is used which classifies these devices as power transistors since a high-voltage source is required for their operation which, at the same time, limits their field of applications.
In contrast, low operating voltage nanowire transistors, which preferably operate at 5 V or less and are therefore compatible with batteries as well as ideal for conformable or portable electronics, have also been reported. In majority, Al2O3 is used as low leakage, high-k gate dielectric. In [1], a SnO2 single-nanowire FET which uses Al2O3 as back-gate insulator is shown. Complementary devices, such as a shift register which works as a standard logic in a display scan driver, are described in [2], [3], and [4]. In [5], a similar low-voltage device with SiNx as gate insulator is reported.
In a different approach, self-assembled high-k organic dielectrics are used to build low-voltage nanowire devices. Examples include a self-assembled superlattice (SAS) as dielectric material in [6], a self-assembled nanodielectric (SAND) in [7], and transistors gated with ultra-thin self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) in [8]. These results demonstrate the possibility of manufacturing ultra-thin gate dielectrics and hence are suitable to build short-channel devices. However, these self-assembled, high-k organic dielectrics are difficult to scale up to be used in electronic devices which require production with a large throughput.
In [9-12], low-voltage operation of nanowire (either SiO2 or In2O3) transistors gated by a ceramic-based solid electrolyte is described. A few micrometer thick microporous SiO2 membranes are produced by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) with SiH4 and O2 as reactive gases and with 100 W power and 0.2 mbar deposition pressure. In addition to the fact that the synthesis of this electrolyte is rather complex and not compatible with solution-processing routes, the microporous SiO2 membranes are rigid due to their ceramic nature and therefore not compatible with applications which require flexibility, and/or bendability and/or foldability.